Intel has been making plenty of headlines this month. Fortunately for the company, those haven’t all been regarding the fundamental design flaws found in their processor chips. On top of unveiling a passenger drone at CES 2018, the chip manufacturer and all-round drone industry heavyweight broke a world record for ‘Most UAVs airborne simultaneously from a single computer indoors’.
Catchy record title? No. Visually impressive? Absolutely.
In preparation for CEO Brian Krzanich’s keynote speech the next day, on Sunday 7th Intel flew 100 Shooting Star Mini drones as part of a record-breaking indoor light show.
The Intel Shooting Star Mini drone is the little brother of the Shooting Star, best known for its appearances above the Super Bowl, the Sydney Opera House and Coachella – to name a few.
The mini version is the company’s first drone designed and built from the ground up for indoor light shows. With a more restrictive setting comes a focus on pairing safety with creativity. To do that, Intel has scaled the drone down, designed a lightweight structure and added propeller guards.
Despite the smaller size, the Shooting Star Mini can still create more than 4 billion color combinations.
The Shooting Star Mini is powered by Intel’s Indoor Location System, which has grown the potential of indoor entertainment by allowing the drones to maintain their position and navigate without using GPS.
Intel has been setting records for a while in the light show space. Most notable are the World Records for flying 500 Shooting Star drones at the same time in Hamburg, Germany on October 7, 2016. We wouldn’t be surprised if there’s scope for larger indoor stunts planned for the future.
Are Intel’s Shooting Stars For Sale?
Not yet. And potentially not ever. As much as we’d all enjoy having our own autonomous light shows, according to Intel, the technology “has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained.”
Malek Murison is a freelance writer and editor with a passion for tech trends and innovation. He handles product reviews, major releases and keeps an eye on the enthusiast market for DroneLife.
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